Honda complaints at Traveller adverts

ONE OF Channel 4’s biggest advertisers, Honda, has complained to the station about its UK-wide “Bigger, Fatter, Gypsier” advertising campaign for its latest series about Irish Travellers, which has provoked hundreds of complaints to the station.

The billboard campaign for the latest series has led to a complaint to the UK Advertising Standards Authority by the Irish Traveller Movement in Britain, which has said Channel 4 should be ashamed “for making money out of presenting Travellers as figures of fun and derision”.

In reply to the movement, the car company said it provided the adverts for the breaks during the station’s documentary series, but that it did not have any “editorial say or control”.

“We would not want to be associated with any racist comments, which we deplore, and I would add, we have informed C4 of our unhappiness with this poster campaign,” Honda told the movement.

Last night, the movement’s director, Yvonne McNamara, claimed Honda’s decision to complain to Channel 4 was “a breakthrough moment for Traveller people. We finally have a multinational company standing shoulder to shoulder with Travellers, saying clearly that they will not tolerate racism against this community.”

Last night, Channel 4, acknowledging it had had a “small” number of complaints over the campaign, said that it had “an excellent relationship with Honda and [we] are in regular contact with them”.